Words fly thick and thin as Sino - US battle over textiles restriction

19 May '05

4 min read

what more can one get to hear when four more categories of textiles are brought under restriction by the us administration from china?

we are yet to complete the reaction on the first restrictive action on chinese knits, shirts and underwears put under 7.5 percent cap put on a couple of days back, when this one came in.

words in reaction for the earlier action are still flying in that were "unfair" and "protectionist" on part of the us and the eu to counter its booming textile exports. add to this the claims of manipulating its currency to gain an unfair trade advantage, and what happens is that china spews 'fire.'

leading the charge from china's end is none other than commerce minister bo xilai who slammed developed countries for arguing for global standards on free trade when they enjoyed absolute advantages but later placing restrictions when their interests were threatened.

he called them "double standards" under world trade organisation (wto) rules, adding "it was not allowed."

"this is unfair," he said, adding that such moves "undermine the solidness of wto rules and generate a negative impact on the ongoing round of (wto trade liberalization) talks."

china pointed at the united states to first get its "own house in order" before charging that beijing's currency regime poses a risk to its trading partners.

who can better comment to a us treasury report stating that china's "highly distortionary" currency regime threatened global growth than wei benhua, china's state administration of foreign exchange deputy administrator simply said, "we cannot accept that."

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